Blood and Dust: Book Three of the Dust Trilogy Read online

  “What about the phone calls?” Fletcher asked. He had moved on to sucking the taco sauce from their packets.

  Imani flipped back a few pages in her notebook. “At 9:37 last night Lucas Meyers called the police station saying that a person with a white painted face broke into his house. He was home alone at the time. He went on to say that this person had a pointed hat with a puffy ball at the end, big colorful pants and suspenders.”

  I set my fruit cup on the table. “A clown? Lucas thinks a clown broke into his house?”

  Imani nodded. “What? You don’t believe him?”

  I shrugged. Lucas Meyers was a junior at our school. I didn’t know much about him, but that just sounded stupid. “What else?” I asked.

  Imani stuck her trusty pencil into her braids. “There was a similar call around midnight. The caller gave the same description of the intruder so they must be telling the truth. You guys need to find out what Ms. Melcher knows about this asap.”

  Fletcher pushed his tray away. We’d had plans after school to go to the mall and the fabric store, but obviously I needed to get to the lair. “I guess we’ll have to hang out later,” I told him.

  His face fell a little. “It’s okay. This is more important.”

  It was, but I’d much rather be doing normal teenager things. I wondered if there would ever be a time in my life when I would be a carefree person just doing what normal people do. Probably not. I was forever a Banshee and this life would always follow me.

  After school I found Imani and Fletcher standing by the trophy case where we always met once school let out so we could walk home together.

  “It has the best iced coffee,” Imani was saying when I approached.

  “How do you know?” Fletcher asked. “Have you tasted all the iced coffee in the world?”

  Imani rolled her eyes. “Okay, it’s the best iced coffee I’ve ever tasted. You know what I mean, Fletcher.”

  He probably didn’t, because he took everything literally, but he nodded anyway. He grinned at me. “I’ll call you later after you do what you have to do. Imani and I are going to the mall to get the best iced coffee she’s ever tasted.”

  “Oh.” For some reason I was a little taken aback by that. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the two of them hanging out without me. They hadn’t done it before and it felt strange. “Okay. Have fun.”

  They headed for the parking lot while I watched talking and laughing, slightly jealous. As they disappeared from sight, I made my way to the janitor’s closet. It wasn’t fair. While my best friend and boyfriend were hanging out, I had to deal with more creature nonsense.

  Taking a deep breath, I put things in perspective. What I was doing had the potential to save lives. That was way more important than hanging out with Fletcher at the mall. I pushed my jealous thoughts away. Aside from my parents, Fletcher and Imani were the two people in the world who would never hurt me.

  But still . . .

  After looking around to make sure the coast was clear, I slipped inside the janitor’s closet on the side of the main building. It was always unlocked. At the very back of the closet was a wall that opened up to a lair where young creatures like me lived. We were called Takers.

  After wading through all the janitor’s mops, buckets, and large bottles of industrial cleaning products, I pressed my palms against the wall and pushed. It slid open and I stepped inside. The hallway was empty although various noises came from different rooms. The white walls had been splashed with colorful paint and paper lanterns of different shapes and sizes dangled from the ceiling. Doors that led to bedrooms, or the dining hall, or the game room lined the walls.

  I made a left at the end of the long hallway and took the elevator to the lower level.

  At the very end of another hallway, I found my old biology teacher, Ms. Melcher in her room flipping through books and tossing them to the side as she muttered to herself.

  I cleared my throat and knocked on her door frame. “Ms. Melcher? You have a minute?”

  Her head snapped in my direction, her fine brown hair falling out of its messy ponytail. “Oh, Arden. Of course. Come on in.”

  Even through her warm smile, she looked exhausted. The bags under her eyes seemed to sag more than they had the last time I’d seen her. I wondered if she had been sleeping at all.

  I took a seat on the edge of her unmade bed. It felt warm. Maybe she had been sleeping and had just woken up. “Something weird happened last night,” I told her. “Two calls to nine-one-one talking about a clown breaking into houses.”

  She gasped and reached for the book. The Book of Us was the most important book I had ever laid my hands on. It was the size of ten Bibles and gave us a description of every type of Giver and Taker that ever existed. A small section in the back spoke of Legends. I’d never gotten a chance to read that part. The Book of Us could never leave the lair and could never be replicated.

  Ms. Melcher held on to that book as if it were part of her body. She was an Artemis, which meant great hunter, the last of her kind. Before Mr. Mason’s passing, he and Ms. Melcher had been working together to find the last of the living Legends.

  “I am a Huntress,” Ms. Melcher had explained when I first learned of the Legends. “All I can do is locate them, I can’t kill them. I have to leave that to you Takers. That’s what Mr. Mason did before he was disposed of.”

  There were two types of creatures—Givers and Takers. Givers protected and gave life, while Takers thrived off death. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Most Takers are good and only kill when they have to. It helps keep a balance. The only Takers who caused intentional harm—Trolls, Ogres, Wendigos, Hellhounds and other dangerous things—we kept locked away in an underground prison called The Sixth Tunnel so they wouldn’t hurt anyone. We were not bad creatures.

  Ms. Melcher ran her finger across several pages before stopping. “Right here. Tony Big Smile. Oh, boy.”

  The name sounded silly yet creepy at the same time. “Who’s Tony Big Smile?”

  “Tony Big Smile is a spirit who’s been around since the 1950’s. He thrives off the laughter of others because that’s how he died—trying to get people to laugh at him. Laughter is like food to him. The only way to kill him is to keep him deprived of laughter for twenty-four hours.”

  Really? I moved to sit on Ms. Melcher’s desk. “That’s all? That sounds easy, almost too easy.”

  Ms. Melcher removed the tack that held an Everson Woods map to the wall in front of her desk. She dragged her finger across the map. “The hardest part is going to be finding out who he is at all. He’s somewhere in this town and he’s been here for a while. We have to look for the clues. Their behavior would be consistent with their past.”

  I thought about every jackass and class clown I knew. That would be a major clue for us. I imagined the wheels turning in Ms. Melcher’s head. She had taught biology, a required course at Everson, so at some point almost every student would have gone through her class.

  I stood up, ready to call Fletcher and Imani to give them the new info. “We’ll handle it, I guess. I’ll keep you posted.”

  “Okay,” Ms. Melcher said, going back to the book. “Arden?” she called once I’d made it to the doorway.

  “Yes?”

  “Get ready. You’re right about this clown, he’s an easy one. The others, not so much.”

  I swallowed hard thinking about the visit I’d had the night before. “I understand.” Her warning was the last thing I needed to hear.

  Chapter Two

  The next morning Dad pulled up to the school. Normally we would have walked, but it was raining. The day before Paige had left the house ten minutes ahead of me so we wouldn’t have to walk together.

  Dad had barely stopped the car when Paige hopped out holding her Burberry umbrella over her head, obviously trying to get away before anyone noticed us getting out of the same car. She didn’t even say goodbye to Dad. I sighed, leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks for
the ride.”

  “Anytime, honey. Have a good one.”

  I opened up my own not-designer umbrella and headed toward the school’s main entrance. As if the rain hadn’t made the morning bad enough, I noticed Ranson Duvall at the window of Bruce Wiley’s pick up talking way too loud. He didn’t seem to care about getting soaked in the rain. I wished he would catch pneumonia and have to be hospitalized until I graduated. I hated Ranson with every fiber of my being.

  “Man, you’ve got to come inside and check out the fresh meat,” Ranson was saying. As usual, he spoke ten times louder than he needed to. The upperclassmen always made a big deal about ogling the new freshmen girls and the poor freshmen thought they were something special because of the attention. They had no idea they were only part of a game—essentially tally marks on a list.

  I didn’t know why Ranson was bothering. Wiley never went to class. I didn’t even know how he passed each year. He had to be barely maintaining any type of acceptable GPA. I mean, it was only the second day and he was already ditching.

  “Hey, Arden!” Wiley called.

  I didn’t bother turning around. I simply waved with the free hand that wasn’t holding the umbrella. My relationship with Wiley was hard to explain. There was nothing I should like about him. He always skipped class, smoked weed, and was good friends with Ranson. But apart from that he was kind of adorable. He knew my biggest secret and he had never told anyone. Finding out that someone wasn’t Human and keeping it to yourself was kind of a big deal. Something about him gave my insides a feeling that I couldn’t explain.

  Still, none of that mattered because I was with Fletcher, however awkward that was. I loved Fletcher but most times it didn’t feel like I had a boyfriend and I didn’t think he knew how to be one. I couldn’t complain because I didn’t know much about being a girlfriend. I had never been anyone’s besides Fletcher’s.

  Fletcher earned himself a lunch time detention for talking back to Coach Wimberly during PE. I could only imagine what he’d said. Fletcher would probably never learn that you couldn’t just blurt out whatever you were thinking. That left me and Imani on our own.

  I dug into my spaghetti as she flipped through her notebook. “So Fletcher agrees with me. Hannigan’s has the best iced coffee he’s ever tasted.”

  I’d almost forgotten they had gone to the mall together the day before, probably because I had tried to push the thought from my mind. “Oh, that’s nice.”

  “Oh no.” Imani slammed her notebook shut. I looked up from my lunch tray to see Mary-Kate Youngblood prancing toward us wearing a navy blue blazer and a green and blue plaid skirt. Her black hair was up in a perfect ponytail as usual, tied with a dark-green ribbon. She wore a pair of black pumps with a low heel.

  I wanted to be happy to see Mary-Kate, but I wasn’t. Imani and I needed to discuss creature business and we definitely couldn’t do that with her around.

  Mary-Kate was the girl I was iffy about adding to my friend list. We had spent a lot of time together over the summer while Fletcher and Imani were away. I considered her a friend, but if she didn’t see me that way, that didn’t really count did it?

  Mary-Kate was one of the most popular girls in school and the most perfect girl you would ever meet. She had been our class president since the ninth grade. She was the coordinator of everything, a shoe-in to be the valedictorian, and just all-around awesome. You couldn’t hate the girl if you wanted to.

  Mary-Kate had never eaten lunch with us because she spent her lunch time being a peer counselor for kids with issues, so I found myself wondering what she wanted. It had to be something important for her to trek all the way out to the weirdo table.

  She plopped down on the bench, sighing overdramatically. “I never thought I’d say this, but pre-calc is kicking my butt.”

  It was a strange thing for her to say. I’d never seen Mary-Kate struggle with academics or anything period. Everything seemed to be so easy for her.

  “What’s wrong?” Imani asked. We all took pre-calculus together and even though it had only been a couple of days, we had found things pretty easy so far.

  Mary-Kate groaned. Stress looked weird on her because she was usually so cheerful and easygoing. “I can’t believe that Mrs. Carmichael is already giving us a test this Friday.” She pulled a book from her satchel. “You guys want to do some practice problems with me?”

  Imani and I locked eyes. Hell no, we didn’t want to do practice problems. What kind of nut wanted to work during lunch time?

  “Please,” she pleaded.

  I felt bad for her and we could have probably helped her out, but I needed to talk about Tony Big Smile, not pre-calculus. I wasn’t sure how to tell Mary-Kate no, so I was relieved when Imani spoke up.

  “Can we do this after school?” she asked. “Arden and I were kind of in the middle of something.”

  Mary-Kate’s eyes widened and the color dropped from her rosy cheeks. She looked appalled that we were turning down an opportunity to study. “In the middle of what?”

  I glanced at Imani. I sucked at lying on the spot. “Um . . . we were debating whether or not Lacey and Ranson will get back together. I mean, we all know they’re going to be voted homecoming king and queen, so it would make sense.”

  Mary-Kate narrowed her dark eyes at us. “Seriously? You’d rather talk about the on-again off-again relationship of those two than help your friend in need?”

  She’d said it. We were friends. Well, maybe not after this conversation.

  I threw Imani a look, hoping she would know what to say that wouldn’t make us look like total jerks. Her mouth opened and closed, struggling to find the right words because clearly what I said had been utterly stupid and was only making things worse.

  Imani sighed. “It’s just that it’s lunch time, Mary-Kate, and we just want to relax and have a little girl talk. We can totally help you with that after school. I promise.”

  Mary-Kate slammed her math book shut and shoved it back into her satchel. “Whatever. I guess I’ll figure it out on my own. Thanks, friends.” With that she stormed off.

  “I feel bad,” I muttered watching her leave. I’d never seen Mary-Kate upset before.

  Imani flipped her notebook open again. “So do I, but this is important. We’ll make it up to her. She’ll be all right. I doubt she’s in that much trouble anyway. Her definition of failing is probably getting an A minus.”

  She was right. I put Mary-Kate out of my mind, focusing on the problem at hand. “Let’s make a list of all the guys who exhibit clown-like behavior.”

  Imani wrote the numbers one, two, and three going down the paper. “You know these kids a lot better than me. What do you think?”

  Three names came to mind immediately. “Claudio Reyes is always playing stupid pranks, mostly stuff he’s seen on TV. Andres Bryant—he’s named himself the unofficial class clown. And then there’s Leo Schwartz. He’s always putting on a show for the masses.”

  Imani jotted the names down. “Okay. We’ll start with these and if you think of anyone else we can add them to the list.”

  “What next?”

  “We have to follow them. At night because that’s when he’s been spotted. There’s three of us and three of them so we’ll put them under surveillance.”

  There were so many things wrong with that plan, mainly me spending all night watching someone. My parents were definitely not going to go for that even if I explained things to Dad.

  Imani continued talking but I blocked her out. “How about you cover Leo Schwartz?”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  “Tonight, Arden. We have to start tonight before this thing decides to draw blood.”

  I felt as if I were about to throw up all the spaghetti I’d eaten. “Yeah, okay. Tonight.”

  On my way to the parking lot after school I saw the vilest display I could ever imagine. Ranson Duvall had my little sister pinned up against a locker. He looked down at her, with his hand on her chin. She stared up at him
adoringly. The words “fresh meat” raced through my mind. My sister wasn’t about to be Ranson’s play toy he could brag about to his friends. I thought that might be the very day I actually murdered Ranson.

  “Hey!” I barked, drawing a few looks in my direction, but I didn’t care who was watching.

  Ranson and Paige both glared at me. Ranson backed away from my sister, but not far enough. “Dust, what’s up? We haven’t had a chance to catch up. Did you have a good summer?” He grinned with that stupid square jaw of his. He knew exactly what he was doing and why I was pissed.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing with my little sister?”

  Paige rolled her eyes at me. “Arden, mind your own business. I’m not some little kid.”

  But she was. Sure, she was fourteen like the other freshman but she seemed so much younger because she was my little sister and Ranson seemed so much older because he was a predatory jerk. No one could keep track of how many girls he had been with and how many hearts he’d broken.

  “Yeah, Dust. Mind your own business,” Ranson mocked.

  Paige poked him in the chest. “Stop calling my sister that.”

  “I don’t care what he calls me,” I said, staring Ranson down, “but he’d better stay away from you and I mean that.”

  “Arden—” Paige began.

  “Let’s go,” I said firmly. “You’re walking home with us.”

  “But—”

  “I said let’s go!”

  My tone surprised me and apparently Paige too. She rolled her eyes again, but stomped away in the direction of the school’s main doors.